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Disability Employment Gaps and Evidence Gaps

Disability Employment Gaps and Evidence Gaps Closing Disability Gaps at Work: Deficits in Evidence and Variations in Experience Professor Victoria Wass Cardiff Business School British Academy, London, 13 th December 2016. Government pledge.

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Disability Employment Gaps and Evidence Gaps

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  1. Disability Employment Gaps and Evidence Gaps Closing Disability Gaps at Work: Deficits in Evidence and Variations in Experience Professor Victoria Wass Cardiff Business School British Academy, London, 13th December 2016

  2. Government pledge “the jobless rate for this group remains too high and as part of our objective to achieve full employment we will aim to halve the disability employment gap. We will transform policy, practice and public attitudes so that hundreds of thousands more disabled people who can and want to be in work find employment”

  3. Disability Employment Gap:actual, predicted and target

  4. Disability Inquiries in 2016 • The Equality Act 2010. The impact on disabled people, House of Lords Select Committee, March 2016 • Closing the disability employment gap, Work and Pensions Select Committee, October 2016 • Workplace health: support for employees with disabilities and long-term conditions, NICE Inquiry April 2017 • Ahead of the arc – a contribution to halving the disability employment gap, All Party Parliamentary Group Disability (APPG D) November 2016 • Improving Lives: The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, October 2016 • Self-employment and the Gig economy Work and Pensions Select Committee, January 2017

  5. Film Messages • Difficulties recruiting disabled contributors • Disabled people are like everyone else in terms of aspirations and interests. One of their aspirations is to work • Key to employment of disabled people lies with the employer at least as much as with the disabled job seeker or employee • Disability discrimination is covered by the Equality Act (2010). Disability is different because equality of opportunity means difference in treatment • Disability is complex and employers are fearful. External support can make a big difference • Default in Scott’s case was redundancy (Retention Deficit) • Need to avoid escalation from grievance/disciplinary to an Employment Tribunal • The stories illustrate but are not representative of disabled people’s experience or work (all the contributors are working)

  6. Definitions of disability • Equality Act • LFS 1998-2012 • Work Capability Assessment Criteria (WCA)

  7. Equality Act 2010 To be disabled according to the law a person has to have ‘a physical or mental impairment’ which has ‘a substantial and long-term adverse effect’ on a person’s ‘ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. However this has to be read along with ‘the rest of section 6; with the provisions of Schedule 1; with statutory Guidance issued by the Minister; with Regulations made by the Minister; and with a substantial and increasing body of case-law interpreting all of these’ (House of Lords, 2016). “anything which is not ‘trivial’ or ‘insubstantial’” (Langstaff J in Aderemi v London and South Eastern Railway Ltd [2013] ICR 591)

  8. Labour Force Survey (1998-2012) • Do you have any health problems or disabilities that you expect will last for more than a year? Yes/No If Yes: • Do these health problems or disabilities, when taken singly or together, substantially limit your ability to carry out normal day to day activities? Yes/No

  9. Activity limitation in LFS (DDA) manual dexterity - loss of functioning in one or both hands, inability to use a knife or fork at the same time, or difficulty in pressing buttons on a key board. mobility - unable to travel short journeys as a passenger in a car, unable to walk other than at a slow pace or with jerky movements, difficulty in negotiating stairs, unable to use one or more forms of public transport, unable to go out of doors unaccompanied

  10. Work Capability Assessment Stage One Limited capability for work assessment (15 points threshold to proceed to stage 2) Stage Two Limited capability for work-related activity assessment WRAG or Support Group

  11. 15 points under WCA Manual dexterity • Cannot press a button, turn the pages of a book or pick up a £1 coin with either hand (15 points) • Cannot use a pen or pencil to make meaningful mark (9 points) • Cannot single headedly use a keyboard or a mouse (9 points) Mobility • Cannot unaided by another person either walk 50 metres on level ground without stopping in order to avoid discomfort or exhaustion or repeatedly mobilise 50 metres within a reasonable timescale. • (100 metres = 9 points, 200 metres = 6 points)

  12. Measurement matters “If you don’t measure disability, you don’t find it and you don’t manage it” Onion metaphor • Definition gets more restrictive as the outer layers are removed. • Disability count gets smaller • Disability employment gap gets bigger Implications Evaluation must use a single definition Evaluation based on the inside layers of the onion is a stiffer test Different definition for different purpose

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